Capstone Games

Ark Nova currently sits at #2 on BoardGameGeek’s overall rankings, behind only Brass: Birmingham and ahead of pretty much everything else humanity has produced in cardboard form. It’s a game about designing and running a conservation-focused zoo - building enclosures, acquiring animals, funding conservation projects - and it uses one of the most satisfying action mechanisms in modern board gaming: five action cards whose power scales based on which slot they currently occupy. ...

Ark Nova doesn’t need an introduction. It’s the #2 game on BoardGameGeek, sitting at an 8.54 rating with over 88,000 owners. If you’re reading a board game blog, you’ve either played it, want to play it, or are actively avoiding it because the word “zoo” appeared in the same sentence as “3.80 weight.” So when designer Mathias Wigge released Ark Nova: Marine Worlds in 2023, the question wasn’t will people buy it - it was should they? ...